On Friday night, dozens of people packed onto a crowded dance floor jumping, dancing, and singing along while “APT.,” the hit song from South Korean singer Rosé and Bruno Mars, blared through the room.
The eclectic swarm — which included a casually dressed woman in blue SPAM T-shirt and a group of 20-somethings wearing mini skirts and vintage leather jackets — could have been the patrons of at a bar in the Mission or nightclub in Chinatown.
Instead, they were the latest people to discover that Seafood City, a Filipino grocery store in Daly City, might be one of the coolest places to spend a night out in the Bay Area.
On select Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., the store trades groceries for grooves during its Late Night Madness events. At the unexpectedly popular parties, attendees eat Filipino street food, buy merch, and, of course, dance the night away to live DJ sets. A makeshift dance floor gets roped off between the fish market and the bakery and draws a crowd ranging from eight to 80.
At the most recent event, Bay Area DJs Jen Uy, who goes by the name DJ Jayou, and Charlene Alcanices, also known as DJ Charl3y Beats, spun throwbacks like the “Cha Cha Slide” and Ne-Yo’s “Closer,” and newer hits including Drake’s “Rich Baby Daddy.”
Between sets, dancers walked over to the store’s food hall for plates of pancit, the Filipino beef stew called bulalo, and non-traditional dishes from the store’s late-night snack line, including lumpia overload, a riff on loaded nachos made with the Filipino eggrolls, bacon bits, green onion, and jalapeno.
Unlike most Seafood City locations — which are usually surrounded by Filipino restaurants like Jollibee and Red Ribbon Bakery — the Daly City store cooks food in-house, hosting restaurants like Grill City, Noodle Street, Sizzle, and Baker’s Avenue.
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Seafood City, North America’s most popular Filipino grocery chain, opened the Daly City location in July, a fitting addition to a city nicknamed the Pinoy Capital of the World.
Shortly after, the company’s director of digital marketing, Patricia Francisco, started brainstorming how to generate buzz for the store’s Filipino street food line. That’s when she came up with the idea for Late Night Madness: an event series during which they would extend the store’s hours from 9 p.m. to midnight and bring in a DJ.
She got the idea from seeing coffee shops bringing in DJs during the day. “People have a great time, no alcohol involved, just enjoying their coffee,” Francisco said. “So I was like, I think it would be really great if we’re able to do this in a grocery store.”
Coincidentally, a local DJ reached out to them first. JP Berzinger (opens in new tab), known for playing in unconventional venues like rest stops, cliffs and the Alviso salt beds in Santa Clara, tagged the store in an Instagram post offering to play a set. After he posted videos from his first set at the grocery store (opens in new tab) in September, he and the store went viral, prompting a flood of comments asking for information about the event and requesting he play at other Seafood City locations.
The Daly City events have since gained so much traction online that Seafood City has brought Late Night Madness to stores across the country, and even in Canada.
“It’s really a beautiful feeling to see everybody just get together, eat, dance and sing. There’s people bringing their grandmas out, and their parents,” Berzinger said. “The fact that I was able to play for four different generations of Filipinos within one room and cater to them all was so beautiful to see.”
On Friday, residents from all over the Bay descended upon the fluorescently lit grocery store to experience the hype for themselves. East Bay auto technician Tony Bush Jr., brought his partner, Becca Weideman, for an impromptu date. The couple, both DJs, were excited to see other DJs in action, especially outside the usual bar or club scene.
“There’s a lot of joy here, a lot of energy, and they’re doing an amazing job DJing,” Weideman said. “Somehow they’re able to read the crowd well and bring songs that everybody knows. Everyone’s dancing, everyone’s enjoying, everyone’s singing — and it’s not an easy thing to do.”
For San Jose resident Christopher Ramirez, the high-energy party surfaced memories of lost traditions. “It’s a new experience, but it also feels like something I’d go to when I was a kid,” said Ramirez, who is Filipino. “I think a lot of my generation has grown up, and now we’re more separated than we were before. This feels like when you’re at your cousin’s cotillion or a large family gathering. “